More In Your Life

Restaurant owner's life moved from farm to fork

Photo courtesy of the Mohawk House -
Mohawk House Executive Chef Brian Saxton cooks a 10 Mile Farm Burger, a specialty at the Mohawk House. All the ingredients in the dish are sourced within 10 miles of the restaurant.

“Farm to Fork” has a double meaning for Steve and Racheil Scro — their restaurant, Mohawk House, is a strong believer in the concept of serving as much locally grown produce as possible — and it's also a direction of their life.

“Rachel and I were not restaurant people,” he explained. “We worked on a farm. We had a farm and a love of people, so we put it together.”

The concept, also known as farm-to-table, is strong at the Mohawk House where, Scro said, there are 30 or more “farms and small purveyors” that supply the restaurant, located on Route 517, just east of Sparta Avenue.

“We try to get as much local as we can,” he said.

The concept is carried through from the raw materials that come into the kitchen to the furnishings and even, depending on the time of year, the serving vessels brought to the tables — think hollowed-out, miniature pumpkins.

'In this business, you're only as good as your last dish.'

- Steve Scro, owner, Mohawk House

As Scro gave a tour of the restaurant, the rustic stone and wood decor made it hard to think of the place as new — it opened in 2005 after three years of construction.

“We want people to enjoy, to have conversation with their meal,” he said. “It was built with an old-fashioned B&B in mind.”

He noted there are several different dining rooms within and outside of the building. A couple of them have complete walls of glass, giving them the illusion of being outdoors.

And the outdoor patio also gives the illusion of being inside, with a full-service bar and a giant wood-fired pizza oven. Thursday through Sunday, when in season, pizza made with local, fresh ingredients comes from that oven.

And the beer to go with the pizza is also local.

“We have 56 different beers, many of them from local micro-breweries,” he said.

Behind the pizza oven are something else seldom seen at a restaurant — bocce courts.

Scro said the restaurant hosts bocce leagues and the game is a good “team builder” for corporate seminars.

As he walked through rooms, he said the aim was “to bring a sense of timelessness, bring back the Old World feeling, the Old World charm.”

And, if you look closely, the chairs in each room are different, the wall coverings are different, the feeling is different.

Oh, and count the fireplaces — four, all wood-burning.

The Scros recently purchased a farm in Lafayette, larger than the farms they once owned — one of which was in Fredon and the other a historic farm in Sparta.

The new farm will grow some of the produce used in the restaurant but most of the land will be used to grow hay.

Any livestock on the farm “is part of the family.”

Scro said a herd of goats is being tended and by fall, “We plan to be making our own goat cheese,” to be used in the restaurant, of course,

And, he said, the Lafayette farm has its own beekeeper.

The wildflower honey made by the bees is used, and sold, at the Mohawk House.

“To know the 'from where' and the families and people behind our food is special to us,” he said of their choice for “farm-to-fork” cuisine, which doubles as the slogan on kitchen staff T-shirts.

And dealing with local producers also allows him and his staff to visit and inspect the who, how, when and where of what's being grown.

“There is a bond between farmer and restaurateur,” he said. “We both have a certain amount of pride in what we produce. In this business, you're only as good as your last dish.”

The farmer in him remains strong, something he doubts he will leave behind.

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